Deer Tick @ Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis, MO

Words and pictures by Duane Clawson

Vintage Vinyl continued their long standing tradition of providing St. Louis with quality music in the form of an instore performance by the band Deer Tick.  Deer Tick calls Rhode Island home when not playing over 200 shows per year.  Deer Tick was formed around 2004-ish by John McCauley, starting as a solo act, adding musicians as the band evolved.  Deer Tick has been steadily improving their chops and molding themselves into a pretty darn fine band.  Deer Tick’s sound blends indie rock, 70's classics, and Seattle grunge.  As McCauley’s voice reincarnates the vocal ghost of Kurt Cobain, bandmates Christopher Ryan, Dennis Ryan, Ian O’Neil, and Rob Crowell provide an indie rock  backdrop.

Today’s show brought a modest crowd to the store but those in attendance were true, die hard Deer Tick fans.  Deer Tick fans seemed to come in all ages and sizes, with the biggest fan of the day being a five-year old girl.  The young fan sang along diligently to “She’s Not Spanish”, a song dedicated to her, with the accompaniment of McCauley and O’Neil on acoustic guitars.  Three of the six songs played on this Sunday were from the new album Negativity.  Deer Tick finished up with a fitting tribute to the recently deceased Lou Reed with a rousing version of “Hanging Around”.  Afterwards, O’Neil and McCauley posted up at the sales counter for an autograph session that had all in attendance leaving with smiles.  Amidst the signing of albums and lithograph prints, there was one special item that was placed on the counter for McCauley and O’Neil to sign.  The bands biggest little fan, the five-year old girl had drawn her version of the cover of Negativity, which was promptly signed with a smile and immortalized in McCauley’s cell phone.  Thanks to Deer Tick and Vintage Vinyl for allowing MTC to share in a great afternoon of music.  Pictures of the instore are below:

Contributed by Duane Clawson